New Orleans is best by bike

I’m currently in Durham, NC. Anybody live in Durham? I’m leaving tomorrow morning so it’s not like we could hang out anyway. I’ve been and will continue traveling the continental US until the beginning of June for work and such, so my apologies for being largely silent. The Mad Hatter’s Cafe and Bake Shop is providing me internet on this lovely afternoon, as well as tons of coffee and food.

One of my recent trips was to New Orleans, and my travel companion and I brought our bikes. Really, you shouldn’t go to New Orleans unless you are also bringing your bike along. You should also be willing to dodge numerous potholes, drunken people, unidentifiable liquid on the street, and dogs. It was pretty much amazing.

We were recommended ahead of time to check out all the Banksy art. You know Bnaksy? He’s great. This was really a perfect way to see the ins and outs of the city – these beauties were located within neighborhoods as well as on busy streets, and we had to ride quite a ways to view the ones we were able to get to before dark. Thus, we didn’t get to see all of them, and some that we tried to see had either been painted over (tragic!) or were on buildings that had since been torn down. One home had been demolished, but the stairs remained. A good way to remind us of what the city has been struggling through.

Aren’t they wonderful?

The following day we drove over to ride the Tammany Trace. It was long, flat, nicely paved, afforded woodsy and watery views, and went over one fancy bridge. But what made this especially great was that it went through Abita Springs, LA. You know Abita? They make the most delicious beer. Andygator is the love of my life. Needless to say, we stopped at their brew pub on the way out and back in. Yum yum yum.

We also ate tons of delicious food (beniets, gumbo, jambalaya, bananas foster, po-boys), walked down Bourbon Street (barf), and hung out for a while at a really great park. But the biking was the best part.

I live in Durham! What were you doing in our fine city? Did you see all the cyclists around town? Well hope you had fun, give us a heads up next time and we’ll roll out the red carpet Lots of good food and beer around these parts.

Whoa! I live in Durham now, and I’m from Louisiana. I also used to hang out at Mad Hatter’s. This post hit home on a lot of levels. Cool! Next time you’re in either town I can let you know where all the cool stuff is!